Tarsius Project

To research and conserve Philippine tarsiers in the Philippines

Despite an increasing interest in tarsiers over the last
decades, the Philippine tarsier (Tarsius
syrichta) still belongs to the least known nocturnal primates.
Tarsiers and the Philippines' remaining biodiversity and ecosystems are under
tremendous threats from an increasing human population. Logging and mining have
destroyed most of the forests. In addition to the degradation of their habitat,
tarsiers are threatened directly by humans. Tarsiers are hunted for the illegal
wildlife pet trade or used as tourist attractions. The population size of the Philippine tarsier is decreasing. Habitat loss and the
illegal pet trade are the
main threats. Historically, tarsiers have not survived well in captivity.
Currently, there is no captive population that might serve as a backup.

The goal of the Tarsius Project
is integration of conservation activities, education and research, which will
help to gain lacking information about this interesting and still little
studied species and help its ex situ conservation.

1. Research of tarsier
behaviour: Very little is known about this species. We studied the biology of tarsiers
using radio-telemetry in 2009–2010. Data on social behaviour, communication,
reproduction and home ranges are currently being analysed and will not only
extent information about this small nocturnal primate but also have impact on
its conservation.

2. Conservation
education and awareness raising: In our project, we focus on raising awareness and educational activities in
cooperation with our local partners. Local and foreign visitors are the target
group; we focus especially on school children, which has the greatest impact on
the future survival of tarsiers and other Philippine species. We also inform the
broad audience through our project website, presentations, leaflets, etc.

For next year we aim to develop a conservation education plan for the broad audience, which means: raise
awareness about the tarsier and other wildlife conservation among visitors
using educational panels, posters, photo exhibition or video documents; train
guides in providing information about tarsiers to the visitors of the centre
and train more conservationists among the locals; and promote ecotourism in the
area by organising guided night safaris, at the same time creating new
livelihood possibilities for local residents.

3. Establishing a
viable backup population: We aim to establish a Philippine tarsier conservation centre in Bilar on the
Philippines, with a captive breeding programme with specific goals: to establish a breeding centre for tarsiers as the first scientific centre
focusing on the conservation and research of tarsiers, which will serve as a basis
for establishing a viable captive population of the Philippine tarsier; to
collect data on the behaviour of tarsiers in captivity; and to develop detailed
husbandry guidelines for the Philippine tarsier that can be used later on by
other facilities.